“If your husband doesn’t beat you,he doesn’t love you” : A qualitative study about the work of change regardingIntimate Partner Violence in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sammanfattning: This qualitative interview study aims to examine the work of change regarding IntimatePartner Violence (IPV), through the voices of seven change workers at Non-GovernmentalOrganizations (NGO) in Nairobi, Kenya. The focus lies on identifying worker’s expresseddefinitions and comprehensions of violence and in what ways those affect the work of changein sectors as victim support, awareness creation & changing societal attitudes and norms. Athematic analysis reveals two themes of social and cultural norms, which emerges as themain comprehensions of violence; as well as essential components of the work of change.Feminist theory enables the image of gendered, embodied norms that supports the hierarchalstructure of marriage and women’s subordination. Findings of social and cultural normsinclude IPV as a loving form to discipline a woman, marital rape does not exist and womenshould stay in marriage. Furthermore, this study presents a mutual understanding of IPV bythe change workers, but with various ways to create change. Obstacles for the eradication ofIPV is presented as lack of shelters, lack of legal implementation, as well as lack ofknowledge within the police force. Key findings include an ambivalent perspective from thechange workers concerning women’s subordination. Most worked against it, while sometaught it, so women could “escape” violence by becoming more submissive. Throughout, IPVis expressed in gender-neutral terms, but interviews reveal the perspective of genderasymmetry and that IPV is a form of violence directed towards women by men.